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June 12, 2004

jones

I have now had two emails asking me what in the heck I mean by pajama jones. It turns out that jones isn't in everybody's vocabulary. Is this a sign of my inner-city upbringing? To clarify, from the OED:

jones.
2. slang. A drug addict's habit.

1968 Sun Mag. (Baltimore) 13 Oct. 19/4 Soon you're out to keep from getting the Jones. 1970 C. MAJOR Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 71 Jones, a fixation; drug habit; compulsive attachment. [emphasis added]

Actually you're more likely to hear the verb jonesin (to have a yearning or craving). She been jonesin after that car for just about ever is a sentence I pulled out of my field research data. It's not hard to find examples of this usage on the web or in slang dictionaries. Also, there was a movie released in 1997 called Love Jones, which speaks for itself, I think. So a pajama jones would be an excessive love of, or attachment to, pajamas.

Thus endeth the informative sidebar.

June 12, 2004 10:48 PM

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Comments

Oh.

I thought it was somehow an obscure referene to Indiana Jones, of silverscreen fame. Duh. It only goes to show that we interpret the world through our own, narrow window of reality, I guess... ;-p

Posted by: Chris Goja at June 15, 2004 09:02 AM